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Application.DDEInitiate Method

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Word Developer Reference

Opens a dynamic data exchange (DDE) channel to another application, and returns the channel number.

Syntax

expression.DDEInitiate(App, Topic)

expression   A variable that represents an Application object.

Parameters

Name Required/Optional Data Type Description
App Required String The name of the application.
Topic Required String The name of a DDE topic—for example, the name of an open document—recognized by the application to which you are opening a channel.

Remarks

Security  Dynamic data exchange (DDE) is an older technology that is not secure. If possible, use a more secure alternative to DDE, such as object linking and embedding (OLE).

If it is successful, the DDEInitiate method returns the number of the open channel. All subsequent DDE functions use this number to specify the channel.

Example

This example initiates a DDE conversation with the System topic and opens the Microsoft Office Excel workbook Sales.xls. The example terminates the DDE channel, initiates a channel to Sales.xls, and then inserts text into cell R1C1.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  Dim lngChannel As Long

lngChannel = DDEInitiate(App:="Excel", Topic:="System")
DDEExecute Channel:=lngChannel, Command:="[OPEN(" & Chr(34) _
& "C:\Sales.xls" & Chr(34) & ")]
DDETerminate Channel:=lngChannel
lngChannel = DDEInitiate(App:="Excel", Topic:="Sales.xls")
DDEPoke Channel:=lngChannel, Item:="R1C1", Data:="1996 Sales"
DDETerminate Channel:=lngChannel

See Also